7 Quick Takes about Bedsheet Drama, One Allergist's Opinion, and the Great Seasonal Changeover

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

For the past several years, people who come to visit us have been kind enough to sleep on a mattress on the floor in our partially finished basement, which is basically one step up from couchsurfing in college. But I'm pleased to announce that we now have a fully functional guest bed!

We moved the mattress upstairs and I scored a great deal on a bed frame and a box spring for it on Facebook Marketplace. I was really proud of myself. 

And this isn't a sponsored post or anything, but let me say how much I love Facebook Marketplace. Our dishwasher, fridge, and microwave are all from there (and they've lasted longer than the brand new appliances they replaced). Even the last car we bought was from Facebook Marketplace, and we got a nice deal on it, too. 

—2—

I guess it's a generational thing, but young people just don't use a flat sheet under their blanket anymore. I've begged my kids for years to start using one, because I think it's frankly disgusting not to have a sheet as a barrier between you and the comforter. After all, sheets are easy to wash frequently and comforters are not.

But the kids resisted my attempts to domesticate them, and I started questioning whether this was really the hill I wanted to die on. I quietly admitted defeat, and tried not to think about it too much or I would throw up in my mouth.

Until I got up one morning to find one of the kids sleeping on the guest bed from Take #1. I hadn't yet outfitted the bed with sheets, so they'd dragged their comforter over and were sleeping ON THE BARE MATTRESS without a top or bottom sheet! I lost it and we had a family meeting that night.

I clearly outlined 4 facts for the kids:

1. The average person sweats 6.5 ounces every night.
2. Their large comforters cannot fit in our old-style washing machine.
3. The high-capacity washers at the laundromat cost $8.25 per load.
4. They can either start using a flat sheet under their comforter, or I will start driving them to the laundromat twice a month so they can wash their comforters with their own money.

They're all using top sheets now.

—3—

I saw this online and laughed because this has literally happened to us. 

Phillip and I must have been parents longer than this guy, though, because when our kids lost the remote we didn't even bother looking. We knew they'd just lose it again immediately.

The remote was missing for months or maybe even years, until one day we were moving the couches to the other side of the room and the remote fell out. We were pretty excited to have it back again, but it disappeared within two days.

Guess how much time we're going to spend looking for it.

—4—

I've been concerned about my 10-year-old's growth for forever. Even though his pediatrician assures me he's small but within the range of normal, something seems weird to me about the way he can't put on weight and height even when he tries. Add to that how kids randomly complain about aches and pains and being tired, and I've gotten to wondering over the last few years if a food allergy could actually be to blame.

Now, I don't run my kids to the doctor about every little thing, but I finally decided to take him to an allergist and ask for a skin test. I didn't have an airtight reason to suspect a food allergy, but if we tested I could know once and for all and stop worrying about it.

The good news is, my son tested negative for all major food and environmental allergens. The bad news is that the allergist clearly thought I was an idiot for even coming in and made no real attempt to hide it.

Basically my conversation with the allergist in his office.

It was embarrassing, but whatever. At least my mind is at ease about the food allergies now.

—5—

Here's a fun video where kids talk to an ex-con. The kids roasted this guy without even meaning to. I'm surprised they didn't make him cry.

Apparently there's a whole "Kids Meet" series, and if you liked this one I recommend "Kids Meet a Plastic Surgeon" and "Kids Meet a Body Builder."

—6—

My 13-year-old usually gets up before me on weekdays for school, but one morning I woke up to find her collapsed on the couch wrapped in a blanket. 

When I shook her shoulder, her eyes fluttered open. They focused on me, but they held zero hints that she had any comprehension of who or where she was. "What the freak?" she finally squeaked in a falsetto whisper. "I woke up at 6, what happened?"

The night before, she and I had been watching some funny videos of people waking up from anesthesia high as a kite, and she actually reminded me of them.

My oldest two have had their wisdom teeth out and were both disappointingly lucid when waking up, but maybe for this child I'll get it on video just in case.

—7—

Right now I'm in the middle of switching over my kids' clothes for the season, which sounds like an easy job unless you've done it before and then you know better. 

It sounds easy: just swap the winter wardrobe for the summer wardrobe. It should take 15 minutes, tops. But the system quickly starts to break down. You can't do that, because kids will still need some warm clothes, even in the summer. After debating over how much to leave out, you start sorting the rest into piles: donate, keep for wearing next year, toss because they have holes or stains... before you know it, you're sitting on the floor surrounded by piles going, "Wait, which pile is which again? Why does my son have 3 million T-shirts and only 2 pairs of pants? No wonder he can't close his dresser. Ugh, I can't believe he never even wore this sweater, that was expensive!"

The best part is how you do all that work, and then for months afterward your kid keeps wearing a pair of highwater pants that snuck past you in the dirty laundry while you were in their room having a midlife crisis sifting through it all.

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7 Quick Takes about Keeping Our Mouths Shut, Counting to 1,800 Every Day, and Inspirational Art

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It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

 

—1—

There's a gorgeous hike a few hours from us, and I just found out that it's also a beautiful place to go in the winter.

I actually like it more because there are no crowds and you don't have to pay to park.

Temperatures were above freezing, but still cold enough that it was a real problem when somehow the 10-year-old got water in both boots halfway through. Luckily, I was wearing two pairs of socks, so he replaced his wet socks with my extra pair and then slid his feet into empty Ziploc bags from the trail mix we'd brought with us before putting his wet boots back on. It worked well enough to keep them dry until we got back to the car. 

—2—

At one of the frozen falls, we stopped to watch an ice climber pickaxing his way up the cliffs. We don't know anything about ice climbing, but I asked Phillip, "Do you think we should start yelling tips to him?"

Phillip shrugged. "It's not like he can stop us."

Don't worry, we didn't say anything.

The scenic overlooks had guardrails at the edges, and like usual most of them were covered in "Justin + Kim 7-6-22" and "Jack was here" type graffiti. 

But this one in particular caught my eye:

I realize it was probably the work of a kid with a crush on his fourth grade teacher, but I prefer to think that Mrs. Corbett took her class on a field trip and just couldn't contain her rebellious streak.

—3—

Honestly, other than the winter hike which was nice, it's been a tough week. Phillip was gone for most of it on a work trip. I'm struggling with crippling inadequacy as it relates to my calling at church, kicking myself over a parenting decision I wish I'd made, tried and failed to help a friend with a project, and my 3rd grader's music class started learning to play the recorder. Basically, I want to crawl under a rock.

ANYWAY.

The kids have been super-helpful, both in terms of cooking dinner and giving hugs, and I appreciate that. Things will be fine, but I'm not sad to leave this week behind and start over again next week.

—4—

When my son was 5 years old, I started to get worried about his growth curve. We started counting calories, got special eating reward plates, and made him eat more at mealtimes, and he jumped way up on the charts. Of course, we got more and more lax over the years, and something keeps nagging at me again to start paying attention to it.

So guess what's back?

1,800 calories fills up the thermometer; 200 more earns a bonus of 10 extra minutes of screen time the next day.

We used a variation of this chart back when he was 5, but now that he's old enough to check the nutrition label (or Google "how many calories is in a banana?") and mark the chart himself, the user experience is way different.

—5—

For you, what is the worst part of grocery shopping? Is it finding all the items to put in the cart? Unloading them at the register? Unloading them into the car? For me, the most tiring part is carrying the bags into the house.

But I discovered something brilliant: the four kids and I can make a line all the way from the car to the kitchen counter, pass the bags down the line, and have everything inside in less than 30 seconds.

I'm trying to time my grocery shopping trips to end on Tuesdays when they get home from school, so hopefully the bucket brigade will become a regular thing.

—6—

I started listening to a new Spanish language learning podcast. It's for intermediate learners and I definitely don't catch everything, but I know I'm improving because (1) I can get the gist of what's being said and (2) my brain still feels okay after listening to a few episodes in a row. 

Really, it used to be that after 15 minutes of trying to understand spoken Spanish I would get sleepy or feel like I needed to zone out and go to the fifth dimension for a while.

I think this is a good sign. 

—7—

I made these inspirational art pieces with the girls at church this week, aren't they cute?

We combined this tutorial with this one, and it was a really easy project that turned out looking nice! Just make sure to use heavier paper like cardstock or artist's sketchbook paper, but all the other supplies you have at home already.

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7 Quick Takes about Jane Austen, Aiming for Sixth Place, and Buying Cereal in Bulk

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

I overheard a conversation between my kids in the backseat of the car.

"The forest near our house used to seem so big," the 10-year-old said, "but now that I'm older I realize it's really small!"

The 8-year-old said "That's because you've become—"

I thought he was going to say 'older,' 'wiser,' or 'more mature,' but then he said: "Fat."

—2—

I've been struggling with the daylight savings time change, and I guess with sleeping in general. I just can't seem to get caught up on sleep, and for one reason or another I'm up too late every night or up too early every morning. Sometimes both.

I'm in such a sleep deficit that my usual YouTube sleep meditations (I like Jason Stephenson in English and Zentopía in Spanish) haven't been working that well, so lately I’ve been listening to a British guy on barbiturates read Pride and Prejudice with rain sounds in the background. 

Every night I just skip back to the last part I remember hearing and continue with the story. It either works fantastically at putting me to sleep, or I spend time with a classic novel I know all about but have never actually read before. So it's a win-win. 

—3—

My daughter was wondering whether anyone has ever remembered their own birth and decided to google her question.

Google autocomplete gave her these suggested searches she might be interested in:

Everything we ever wanted to know about dying is right here, but unfortunately that's not the information we're looking for.

—4—

Our 8-year-old gymnast gets to compete in the Men's State Championship! Typically, States are held over the weekend and my son's level/age group competes on Sunday, which he forfeits for religious reasons. This year, he's scheduled to compete on Saturday, which we're all thrilled about, but I thought the schedule looked a little suspicious. I asked the coach of his new gym if she had anything to do with it and she said, "I made some requests."

She also explained to me that if his performance at States qualifies him for Regionals, his level will also be competing on Saturday. UNLESS he is in the top 5 gymnasts in his division in the state, in which case he would be scheduled on Sunday and therefore have to drop out.

On the way home from gymnastics practice I explained this to my son and he said, "So I should try to do good but not too good?" A certain scene from The Incredibles comes to mind here:

—5—

I passed some employees in the grocery store using shopping carts to move around Kellogg's promo displays that looked like giant boxes of cereal. 

Or maybe this is just a mom of teenagers making a midweek Costco run. Hard to say.

It was a hilarious sight, and it was even more hilarious because they didn't seem to think it was hilarious. It was just a normal Tuesday.

—6—

Basement finishing update: we have officially applied polyurethane to and sanded the stair treads and risers!

By "we," I mean Phillip. I helped with this for 5 minutes.

That night I went to a welcome home party for a friend's returned missionary daughter, where I was talking to someone else I know who is also finishing her basement. After chatting for a while about our progress, I said "we both keep saying 'we', but 'we' is our husbands, correct?"

"Correct," she said. And then we kept talking about what 'we' were planning to do next. Don't hate us, every project needs a project manager. It's called teamwork.

—7—

To make sure I wasn't a bot, a box popped up on the ChatGPT site that said "Are you human?" 

The irony.

"Yes, are you?" I muttered as I completed the stupid Captcha puzzle so a robot could decide whether I was not-robot enough to talk to it.

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7 Quick Takes about Answering Philosophical Questions, and Digitizing the Past One Page at a Time

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

My high schooler was supposed to pick up his sister from middle school, but he forgot. When I finally arrived home and realized she wasn't there and went to go pick her up myself, she wasn't too happy.

He apologized for not coming to get her (apparently he'd set an alarm on his watch but accidentally set it for the wrong time) and asked what she was doing that whole time she was waiting.

"Pondering the mysteries of the universe, probably," I said helpfully.

"I did!" She cried. "I sat there for so long I figured out the answer to the question 'to be or not to be.' After 35 minutes, I decided the answer was 'NOT  TO BE!'"

—2—

Over the summer I took a break from my language exchange app, where I talk with Spanish speakers learning English, and never started up again in the fall. 

This week I jumped back on it and had a short conversation. I feel a little out of practice but I didn’t say anything stupid (at least not egregiously stupid enough for Luis to correct me on), so that's something.

—3—

Someone brought the toy train set down from the attic to use for a school project (something about a Rube Goldberg machine) and now the younger boys have been playing with it.

"How sweet that they're not too old for trains yet," I thought, but as I went down to watch them play I noticed it wasn't like when they were toddlers. The goal here was to recreate as many accident scenes as they could think of.

Still a work in progress. More wreckage to come.

—4—

My 11-year-old brought home slime from school. Slime. 

As much as I wanted to rip that Ziploc baggie from his hands and throw it out the window like a live grenade, I tried to be a fun mom. A supportive mom. I said he could keep it as long as it stayed in the kitchen and dining room, where there's no carpet and very little upholstered furniture to destroy.

Of course, then he had to push it, and could he puhleeeeeaaaase take it up on the balcony in the living room to see if it could stretch all the way down to the first floor? Yes he could, I said, because I'm an idiot.

I should've known right about now that this wasn't going to end well.

By the next day, I was cleaning slime out of the carpet and thinking of that scene in The Little Mermaid where King Triton says "I consider myself a reasonable merman" and ends up destroying Ariel's secret grotto.

—4—

Phillip and I haven't gone out on a date in a while, so earlier this week we dropped off our son at gymnastics, then walked around the mall together and each bought a pair of workout pants. It was everything you'd expect from a date in a 21-year-old marriage.

We were in Burlington looking at the home decor (note to self: if you're looking for a plant stand, go to Burlington; I've never seen so many plant stands in one place in my life) and I saw an Easter door hanging that I kind of liked. This isn't the actual one I saw, but I found a similar picture online:

Since last year, I've been upgrading our Easter decor to reflect our focus on Jesus during the Easter season and thought this might be a nice addition to the front door. "Do you like this?" I asked Phillip.

His response was a resounding NO. "It's got Easter eggs on it, that's weird."

"Weird? Why? People mix secular and religious traditions for holidays all the time."

"But not in the same decoration! That's like a Nativity set with Santa's elves in it."

I guess he might have a point, but I was too distracted by the image of Buddy the Elf next to Mary and Joseph to say so.

—6—

When my oldest kids were little I spent hundreds of hours making them gorgeous baby scrapbooks. I pictured flipping through them as a family to relive old memories, and then they would go on to be treasured by each kid's future spouse and children.

Well.

Fast-forward a decade or more, and the glue has lost its tackiness. The fragile scrapbooks are sadly not headed toward becoming forever keepsakes, they are headed for the garbage. When I first realized this was happening, I was super-sad. If the physical pages weren't going to last, I at least needed to digitize these things but it felt too overwhelming to start. 

Encouraged by my ever-positive 13-year-old ("You can do it, Mom! Just do three pages a day and you'll get through them!") I began the slow, painstaking process of removing each page, taking its picture, and uploading it to the cloud so it can still live on in some format.

Maybe once I have the pages all digitally copied, I'll feel okay with setting the physical books out and letting the kids leaf through them until they really do fall apart. Because one thing I've realized in my journey to becoming a minimalist is that if I hide things away to preserve their specialness, not only will I never get to use them but they'll also never carry special memories for the kids so they won't want them after I'm gone. Special things were meant to be used, even if that means using them to death.

—7—

The world is so big, but in some ways it's also kind of small. Isn't it weird that the airport lady's voice is the same lady in so many places all over the world? 

She seems like a delightful person.

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